Wilmette resident Bradley Wynn, 54, left a banking career in 2012 and is now involved with the non-profit Citizen Schoolsthrough which participants teach enrichment classes to middle school children in underserved communities. Last month, he won the President’s Volunteer Service Silver Award
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.Q: What do you do as a Citizen Schools volunteer teacher?
A: I teach two times a week over 10 weeks, plus a culmination event. I’ve been doing it for four years now.
Q: How would you describe financial literacy, and why is it important to you?
A: I think a lot of even very smart, educated people don’t necessarily understand things like budgeting, how money compounds, how to balance a checkbook, how interest rates work on a credit card, that sort of thing. You see people who lose their homes because they didn’t realize rates can go up on a floating rate mortgage. We can help, starting with teaching kids how to handle their allowances, teaching concepts like delayed gratification and learning the difference between needs and wants.
Q: How can you teach those skills to 5th through 8th grade students?
A: We talk about personal budgets. We’ll talk about how they earn money, maybe babysitting, raking lawns, walking a neighbor’s dog. Then we talk about hypotheticals: Say you make $100 a week, and have to pay for food, shelter, clothing. What will you do with what’s left over? Will you buy new shoes, a new video game, or save it? Another goal is to have the shy kids open up and become more confident about themselves.
Q: How can people volunteer their talents to society?
A: Just do what you’re passionate about. There are a million different organizations you could help. And remember it’s OK to help just one person. You don’t have to change the world.
–Kathy Routliffe, Pioneer Press
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy
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